


An Ordinary Abnormality

by StrawberryNightmare



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, Wizard Marriage Law
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:59:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9394652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryNightmare/pseuds/StrawberryNightmare
Summary: Now that she's back at MACUSA as an Auror again, Tina Goldstein has been given a very serious task by President Picquery: find Graves, dead or alive and bring him home. But as Tina works to find all of Grindelwald's hiding places, MACUSA passes a controversial Wizarding Marriage Law that leaves Tina in a very precarious position.





	1. Shot in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I had to fix a bit of the timeline as I completely missed something in the screenplay! But not much really changed.

She was going to miss that Newt Scamander. He had made her smile in a way that she hadn’t smiled in a long time. He made her feel appreciated.

And they had only had three days together.

Newt was already set to take a ship back to England in just a few more days and Tina was already beginning to miss him terribly. But she had a job to do first.

So much had happened in the past few days that her mind was a clutter, but according to her legilimens sister Queenie, Newt was at the forefront of her thoughts.

Followed closely by her missing boss, Percival Graves. It had been a tremendous shock to find out that the Director of Magical Security had been taken over by Gellert Grindelwald himself.

A question remained: was Graves dead?

Tina didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want her boss to be dead. He had been her boss for six years and she hadn’t noticed it wasn’t him. How long had Grindelwald been posing as Graves?

It did, however, warm her heart to know that it was, in fact, not Graves who had sentenced her to death. At the time, she hadn’t had a lot of opportunity to process the fact that Graves had so carelessly and casually sent her to die, but it was a heartbreaking fact.

Now she knew it wasn’t him.

And she felt she owed it to him to find him. He had to still be alive. Out there somewhere, probably injured or unconscious. Grindelwald wouldn’t have killed him, would he?

She was an Auror again, thankfully. Tina had hated her time in the Wand Permit Office. It was just too boring. When Picquery gave Tina her job back, she also gave her a heavy task.

“Find Graves. Whether it’s just his body or if he’s alive, it is our duty to bring him home. Carneirus and Potter will help you, while Limus runs the office until we know one way or the other, then promotions will be done,” Picquery said.

Tina nodded. She wondered why Picquery chose her to run the small team over Carneirus, who was the Chief Auror, but Tina knew better than to question the decision. She was lucky to have her job back.

Just one day after Grindelwald was arrested, Tina returned to Macusa to get started on the tough task. The trio had been given a small conference room near the Auror’s office to use. Mark Carneirus and Evangeline Potter were heard at work already, looking through everything they had taken off of Grindelwald after he was arrested.

“What do we have?” Tina asked, pulling her hat and coat off.

“Not much. Nothing that gives us a clue about what happened to Graves,” Evangeline said.

Tina took her seat, a deep frown settling on her face. “We’ll go through his office first and then go to his house.”

“What about talking to Grindelwald?” Carneirus asked.

“If you want to try, go for it, but I know he’s not going to give us anything useful. Grindelwald is too smart for that,” Tina replied, her fingers reaching out for the wand that lay in the middle of the table.

She had seen Graves’ wand in action so many times over the last six years. He was aggressive, some said, with his wand, but Tina thought he had a beautiful swing. He was always so calm and controlled when he worked.

The 15-inch wand was ebony and sleek. She could feel the magic pulsing inside when her fingertips touched the wood.

“Dumb enough to get caught, though, huh?” Carneirus said.

Tina pulled her fingers back, balling hand into a fist. “The obscurial is gone, he has no need to keep his cover,” she said simply, a hint of sadness in her voice. Credence was a good boy. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.

If only someone had loved him as all children deserve.

“Maybe he’d slip up and tell us what happened to Graves,” Evangeline said hopefully.

“Again, you can try if you want,” Tina said. “But don’t expect anything but lies and games.” She tore her eyes away from the wand. “I don’t think Graves is dead.”

Evangeline and Carneirus exchanged a quick look and then looked at her with mild pity. They thought he was dead.

Tina’s heart sank.

“Grindelwald needed him,” she explained, her voice small.

“It would help if we knew how long he was pretending to be Graves,” Carneirus offered. “If it’s only been a couple of weeks then maybe, but if it’s been months…” he trailed off.

“He’s been off for a while, I think,” Evangeline said. “Remember All Hallow’s Eve?”

Tina frowned. “He did dress up a little, didn’t he?” she said as she remembered. It wasn’t much, but it was more than Graves had ever done. Even Picquery was surprised. She said the last time he had dressed up on the holiday was at Ilvermorny.

“He called me son the week before that,” Carneirus added. “He’s never called me son.”

That was around the time Tina had been demoted to the Wand Permit Office. After she was demoted and took her things down to her new desk, tears streaming down her face, Graves visited her. He calmed her down and when he left, he wiped the tears from her face with his bare hand. It had shocked her.

Thinking about it, Tina’s heart sank further. What if that kind gesture hadn’t been Graves? What if it had been Grindelwald?

“How are we supposed to know what was development and what was Grindelwald?” she suddenly questioned, a growing anger in her chest. “How are we supposed to know what was him growing as a person?”

Evangeline and Carneirus were quiet, not having the answer.

Tina sighed. “Carneirus, go talk to him. Be careful,” she warned. “Do not make the mistake of thinking you’re smarter than him. Just see what he’s willing to give up. Do not be alone with him,” she ordered.

Carneirus nodded and stood up from the desk. “I get it, boss lady. Walk a line, test him. That’s all.”

For the first time since Newt got on the ship, Tina smiled. _Boss lady_. She kind of liked that.

He left the room, leaving the two women alone.

“Evangeline, go over everything here again. Make sure you check everything for any kind of charm. Maybe he’s hidden something,” Tina ordered the woman.

She nodded. “What about you?”

“I’m going to check out his office. Maybe Grindelwald kept something in the desk,” Tina said as she pushed up from the chair.

“Got it. Be careful, like you said, Grindelwald is smart. He might have wards,” Evangelina said.

Tina nodded before turning to leave the room. Shutting the door behind her, Tina took a deep breath. She walked down the hallway, passing the large Auror’s office before coming to Graves’ office. Her hand wavered over the doorknob. The last time she had been in his office, she was being demoted.

Tina knew she had messed up by attacking Mary Lou Barebones, but she couldn’t stand to see Credence hurt. The young man didn’t deserve the wicked woman’s anger. She had been expecting to be fired when Graves called her into his office, but he stared at her with a kind understanding that she hadn’t expected from the older man. If she wasn’t mistaken, his voice cracked just the tiniest bit when he informed her she was demoted.

Maybe it had been Graves.

She prayed it was Graves.

With another deep breath, Tina turned the doorknob and entered the office. It was still in the clean state that Graves had always kept it. Tina shut the door behind her and slowly made her way to the desk.

Adorned with just a couple of books, a small version of the MACUSA Magical Threat Exposure Clock, a lamp, ink well and quill, and a small brown box.

Tina walked around the desk, her fingers lightly running over the smooth desk. She had stood before the desk on many times, discussing reports and cases, and sometimes being reprimanded for not following the rules.

Her heart ached as she lowered herself into Graves’ chair. She could feel him there, like he was standing behind her, tsking quietly at her impertinence to sit in _his_ chair. Tina hadn’t realized how much she had missed her old boss.

Placing her hands on the desk in front of her, palms down, Tina closed her eyes. In these quiet moments, she could feel the magic around her. It wrapped around her like a familiar cloak, covering her in warm and familiarity.

She smiled.

She opened her eyes again and looked down at the three drawers on his desk. Trying the handles on each of them, Tina wasn’t surprised to find them all locked. She pulled out her wand and tried the basic unlocking spells. Again, she wasn’t surprised that none of the spells worked.

Tina thought carefully. She was an Auror. She knew almost every unlocking spell there was. Grindelwald was a smart man, he wouldn’t use just any spell. Tina also knew there was a chance she only had a few chances to try spells before the whole thing would explode in her face. Maybe she only had one chance.

It was a shot in the dark, but Tina took a breath and tried the most elegant spell she could think of. She closed her eyes, grimacing as she waited for something to happen.

_Click._

Tina slowly opened her eyes.

It worked!

Tina started with the middle drawer, rummaging through the mess. It didn’t seem much like Graves to leave a messy drawer, so she assumed it was Grindelwald’s doing. She pulled out a key ring with several keys on it. Some looked normal, but a few of the keys looked odd and unlike most keys Tina had ever seen before.

She set the keys on top of the desk and moved on to the right drawer. She pulled out several notebooks and thumbed through the top one. It was written in a language she didn’t recognize and Tina knew immediately it wasn’t Graves’ handwriting.

Her heart beat picked up as she realized she could be holding something important. Tina set the books down on the desk and moved on to the final drawer.

The drawer was almost completely empty except for an oval shaped mirror with an elegant silver floral design. Tina pulled it out and looked into it.

Her heat skipped a beat when she realized she was staring at an unconscious Graves.

“Percival!” she cried out, jumping to her feet, clutching the mirror tightly in her hands.

The man’s face twitched causing Tina to almost drop the mirror.

Could he hear her? What was this? Tina smiled in relief. Had she found Graves? Was he actually alive?

And then his face was gone and she was staring at her own shocked face.

“No, wait! Percival, come back!” she yelled at the mirror, but to no avail. It showed her nothing but her own reflection.

She stared for a second before she realized she had to get to work. Graves was alive and time was possibly running out for him. Tina rushed from the room, being careful to shut the door and lock it remembering that there were still important things in the office. She sprinted down the hallway.

Tina knew exactly who could help her.


	2. Tell Mama

Tina’s heart was beating so fast, her hands were shaking. As she hurried down the hallway to the Magical Objects Office, Tina repeated one mantra:

_Don’t drop the mirror._

If she dropped the mirror, then it would all be over and they might never find Graves in time. His unconscious face was stuck at the forefront of her mind.

Tina had never seen her boss look so hurt, so fragile, so…not Graves. Percival Graves was always 100% put together. He never appeared to be anything less than perfect, even in the middle of a duel. Graves just had something about him that even when he was upset over an Auror’s death, he still seemed with it.

She was often jealous of how composed Graves always seemed to be, whereas she generally appeared to be a frazzled mess.

Tina burst through the door, looking around widely for anyone on duty, but the office was mostly empty. Apparently she had come on a break. She spotted Clarence Johnson on the far side of the room. His eyes were wide with bewilderment at Tina’s state.

“Clarence! I need your help!” she shouted as she rushed across the room, the mirror held fast in her outstretched hands.

“What is it, Tina?” the young black man asked, standing up from his desk.

“I saw Mr. Graves in the mirror!” she told him excitedly, pushing the mirror towards him.

Clarence looked from Tina’s face, which was red with excitement, to the mirror in her hands. He took a deep breath, let it out, and then took the mirror.

“Please be careful with it,” she said in a hushed voice, taking the seat in front of his messy desk. “It’s our only link to the Director.”

He gave her a quick look that said ‘I’m not a rookie’ and then went to work, his wand waving over the old mirror. Tina’s feet danced on the ground, her legs jumping up and down as she waited impatiently. She kept her eyes firmly on the mirror, watching Clarence work, her heart still beating hard in her chest.

“Anything?” she asked after what felt like 10 minutes.

Clarence shook his head. “You’ve got to give me time to work, Tina. Some spells can be harder to detect than others.”

She quieted, but her legs didn’t stop moving. Tina linked her fingers together, squeezing her hands together in an effort to stop from shaking. It didn’t help.

Tina was nervous.

She had never been this nervous.

What if it didn’t work? What if they couldn’t find Graves?

Her heart tightened in her chest. The thought of never seeing Graves again was heartbreaking. The thought of him never knowing she was an Auror again, that she was partly the Auror she was because of him, that he had been one of her greatest mentors, it hurt. If they found him, no _when_ they found him, she would tell him how much he mattered to her. He deserved to know.

Tina couldn’t help but wonder…if she hadn’t been demoted, would she have noticed he wasn’t really Graves? They weren’t friends, by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew him. They had worked together for long enough now. She would have noticed.

Right?

Clarence was taking forever, but Tina kept her mouth shut. If he could figure the mirror out, then they would find Graves. So Clarence could take his time (though not too much).

As Tina waited, others came into the office, coming back from whatever break they must have been on. Jacob Free, head of the office, came in with a mug of coffee and seeing Tina sitting impatiently before Clarence, headed straight for them.

“What is going on, Goldstein?” he asked in an angry tone. He had never liked Tina and she wasn’t sure why.

“Sir,” Tina said as she jumped up from her chair. “I was going through the things in Graves’ office, looking for anything that might lead us to him, when I found this mirror in a locked drawer. When I was looking at it, Graves face showed up! I’m not sure how, so I brought it here,” she explained.

Free looked at her like she was insane. As if they weren’t constantly dealing with magical artifacts in this office every day.

As if they weren’t wizards!

“Clarence, what do you think?” Free asked, looking down at his employee.

Tina looked at him, her eyes hopeful.

The young man sighed, setting the mirror down on the desk carefully. “I can’t detect anything, sir. Maybe someone with more experience could, but I’m not finding anything.” His voice was full of disappointment.

Tina sank down in the chair. She hadn’t imagined it. She had seen Graves’ face.

She _hadn’t_ imagined it.

“There you have it, Goldstein. Go back to real work and leave your fantasies for home,” Free admonished her. He gave her a pointed look, spun on his heel, and headed for his desk in the back of the room.

Frowning, Tina stood, grabbed the mirror from the desk, and quickly left the office. If she’d have to figure it out on her own, she would. But she wouldn’t. Evangeline and Carneirus would believe her.

She hoped.

Dejected, the Auror returned to her small office. Evangeline looked up when Tina walked in.

“What’s that?” she asked, eyeing the mirror.

Tina set it down on the table in front of Evangeline. “I swear, I swear I saw Graves in it! It was in his desk,” she explained as she sat down next to Evangeline.

Evangeline lifted one of her thin blonde eyebrows, but said nothing. She picked up the mirror, looking it over carefully.

“I’ve heard stories from some of the Auror’s at the Ministry of Magic, I’ve got a cousin there you know, and they’ve talked about mirrors that are connected,” Evangeline said. “I wonder…”

“So there’s a mirror by Graves?” Tina asked.

“Possibly. Probably,” Evangeline muttered. She waved her hand over the mirror, but nothing happened. “It would make sense though. What easier way to keep an eye on him? If you don’t want to trust any of your people with it, just set up a magical mirror. Keep one with you and one in front of Graves.”

Tina’s heart fluttered with renewed hope. “But how do we find him?”

“No clue, but this is a better start than what we had. Did you take it down the hall?” Evangeline asked.

“Yeah. Free thought I was crazy and Clarence couldn’t find any trace of magic,” she said.

Evangeline frowned. She waved her hand over the mirror again. “For someone who works in Magical Artifacts, Free is awfully closed minded.”

Tina snorted in agreement.

“An owl would take too long,” Evangeline muttered to herself. “I guess I could floo.”

“There has to be someone at MACUSA that knows about this stuff, right?” Tina asked. They were running out of time. If Grindelwald hadn’t told anyone to take care of Graves, then without Grindelwald, he could quickly die.

“I don’t know. We could send a company-wide memo asking about it, but I don’t know. Should we ask Picquery?” Evangelina went quiet. “This would be so much easier if Graves was here. He’d know who to ask.”

An uneasy feeling settled in her stomach. Had they relied on him this much? His expertise? His knowledge? His being?

“Somebody in Magical Artifacts has to know!” Evangeline snapped, pushing herself up from the table. “Come on Tina, we’re going to get some answers.”

Tina followed Evangeline out of the office and back down to Magical Artifacts. Once again, her heart beat quickly in her chest. She was going to pass out if this kept up. The two women burst through the door and into the office.

“What is it now Goldstein?” Free yelled angrily from the back of the office.

“I want answers, Free,” Evangeline said, heading for his desk. “This mirror has some sort of spell on it, Free. And your best worker will find out what it is,” she ordered, holding the mirror up.

“You can’t just order me around, Potter,” Free said.

“No, but I can,” came the voice of Seraphina Picquery herself.

Tina and Evangeline spun around, surprised to see the President of MACUSA standing in the doorway.

“I heard we had a lead to Graves’ whereabouts. Imagine my surprise to hear that his colleagues aren’t trying to help,” she said, walking into the room, one modelsque step in front of the other. Picquery moved with a strong purpose. This was the way Picquery was when she was off to convince people of something. When she wanted people to follow her.

It was awesome.

“I-uh, Madam President, I don’t-” Free stumbled over his words.

“I want your very best on this Free. I want Graves found, dead or alive. I want him found. And before you say anything, you know that Graves would do the same for you. His Auror’s may be his favorite, but he cares about everyone in MACUSA. If you went missing Free, he would do what he could to find you. Same goes for everyone here,” Seraphina said. She wasn’t shouting, yet her voice was strong and firm. She looked at every face in the office and they knew she wasn’t lying. “We all, regardless of our office, work towards the same goal. We work towards the betterment of our community, towards the safety of our people, towards _living_. And we work towards that goal _together_ , all of us. So please, find out whatever you can about this mirror.”

Tina looked over at Clarence at his desk. The man was standing, looking ever so proud. He caught Tina’s eye and wink.

_The sly devil._

“Of course Madam President. Williams, Pertwee, and Clemons. Get to work,” Free ordered.

Seraphina smiled at Tina and Evangline. “Good job, ladies.”


	3. Within Reach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I originally had planned for the first chapter to go from Tina getting the case of finding Graves to her finding him, but it just won't end! Eventually, Graves will be saved and then the real fun can begin.

Tina, Evangeline, and even President Picquery had been asked (more like told) to leave the room while the wizards worked. They obliged, albeit under protest.

While Evangeline and Picquery seemed fine with standing still, Tina was pacing the hall in front of the door, ringing her hands together.

“Teen, you’re going to wear a hole in the ground,” Evangeline joked.

Tina paused for a moment to look at Evangeline and then started pacing again. “I can’t help it. What if we can’t find him? He’s there and we can see it and if we can’t find him-” she rambled.

“Goldstein, for the love of Morrigan, stop talking,” Picquery ordered.

She shut her mouth dutifully and thankfully. Thinking these terrible things was one thing, but voicing them somehow made them real.

They would find Graves.

They _would_.

 _She_ would.

The minutes ticked by slowly, but before Tina could lose her mind, the door finally opened and Free beckoned the three women to come in. Tina had to control herself to let Picquery go in first. Tina and Evangeline exchanged a quick look of hope before they followed the President in.

They gathered around a conference table in the middle of the room. In the middle of the table, on a wooden holder, was the mirror in question.

“The magic in this is old and not used very often,” Free began to explain. “It can only be cast by extremely powerful wizards as it takes quite a lot to put this spell on two separate mirrors. So, you know, not surprising that Grindelwald is behind it.”

“The problem with this sort of magic is it’s almost impossible to find the other mirror,” Killian Pertwee explained. The stout, beefy man looked incredibly disappointed. “Knowing how powerful Grindelwald is, we can’t even theorize on how far away the other mirror is.”

Tina’s heart sank.

“That being said, we believe we can turn the mirror back on, reconnect them,” Free said.

She tried not to get her hopes up too much.

“Graves was unconscious when I saw him,” Tina said.

“If we speak to him, he may wake up,” Free continued. “If we can wake him up, we may be able to figure out even a country to start looking. If we have an idea of where to look, we can start narrowing it down. This mirror has a lot of magic in it.”

“We can track the magic?” Picquery asked.

“I believe so, Madam President. We’ve done it before.”

Everyone looked to Picquery, waiting for her final decision. Tina held her breath, her lungs threatening to explode.

“There’s no question is there? We do it. We do what we have to to find Graves,” Picquery said simply. “And when you reconnect the mirrors, let Tina be the one to speak to him. He knows her voice. It may help.” With her last order, Picquery left the room.

Tina turned to Free. “Let’s get to it, shall we?” She gently picked up the mirror and followed Pertwee, Free, and Frannie Clemons to a side room. Evangeline chose to wait outside so she could be close as soon as they heard something one way or the other.

The side room, much like the small conference room she, Evangeline, and Carneirus were working out of, was furnished with a small table and a few chairs. Tina gingerly set the mirror on the table and stepped away. She looked up at the woman and two men, her eyes pleading with them.

“Please, do what you can.”

Free nodded and stepped up first. He lips moved, but no sounds came out. His wand moved slowly over the mirror, as if he was seducing it to respond. American wizards and witches were generally quite skilled at wandless and silent magic. Given the state of relations between the no-maj community and the wizarding community, they had to be able to operate in the shadows. The Salem Witch Trials had been devastating for their community and they had responded by learning to hide themselves in broad daylight.

It was for the best.

Rappaport’s Law made it certain that they could not have relationships of any kind with no-majs. It could make it difficult, but it was the only way the Americans knew how to survive.

For the third time today, Tina stood by and waited impatiently as someone else worked. She felt useless, but she also knew this was what they did. This group knew what they were doing and if it could be done, they’d be able to do it.

“Look!” Clemons shouted, pointing at the mirror in Free’s hands.

Tina hurried behind Free and peered around his shoulder. The mirror was on! Her heart began to beat quickly again.

Free passed the mirror to Tina quickly and carefully. She held the mirror in her hands, feeling the magic coursing through it. Unlike earlier, Tina could only see the top of someone’s head. The dark brown hair was greasy and unkempt.

“Mr. Graves?” Tina called out in an unsure voice. She was suddenly very aware of the three people standing around her. She wasn’t sure of how to talk to Graves when others were standing around. She didn’t want them to talk.

Nothing.

“Mr. Graves?” she tried louder.

A slight stir from the head.

Tina looked at the people around her. “I’m so sorry, but could you just give me a minute?” she asked them, blushing slightly. 

Free raised an eyebrow but nodded his head. “Certainly.”

She watched as the trio left the room. Once the door had shut, Tina lowered herself in a chair and looked down at the mirror again.

“Percival, please wake up,” she begged him. The head moved slightly again. She found herself leaning closer to the mirror. “Please, Perce, please. I need to know where you are. I need to find you. Please wake up!” Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheek.

And then the head moved and suddenly she could see Graves’ eyes.

Tina almost dropped the mirror out of shock. She fumbled it slightly, then held it tightly in her sweating palms.

“Percival!” she cried out again, a smile erupting on her face. “Can you move?” she asked. She wanted to ask him if he was okay, but she knew it was a stupid question. Of course he wasn’t okay.

“Ti- Tina?” he questioned in a hoarse, broken voice. She could see his face was covered in dirt and he had a growing beard on his face. Graves never grew a beard.

“I’m here! It’s me!” she answered. She wanted to stroke the mirror. She wanted to reassure him, but she wasn’t sure how.

“Help,” he managed to say.

Her heart broke again. This was so unfair. Percival Graves had been nothing but wonderful. He was a great Auror, a wonderful boss, and a good person. He didn’t deserve this.

“Percival, listen, I need anything you can tell me. We can’t find you. Anything you know will help us,” she told him.

Graves stared through the mirror, his eyes oddly empty. Tina didn’t like seeing him like this. This wasn’t him.

“I haven’t seen much,” he said quietly and slowly. “Smells like a farm, though that might just be me.”

There he was. Tina smiled softly. “Where were you when he took you?” she asked, wondering if that might help find him.

Graves frowned. “Albany.”

Albany.

When had he been sent to Albany? It had to have happened after she had been demoted. It sort of reassured her to know that it had been the real Graves that reluctantly demoted her and then wiped her tears from her cheeks.

“I trust you,” Graves said, interrupting her thoughts.

“What?”

“You’ll find me. I know that Tina. I trust you,” he reiterated.

The tears didn’t stay this time. They slid down her cheeks, burning her eyes. This was Graves. The man that respected his Aurors and cared about them. The man that wouldn’t just send someone to be executed on a moment’s notice.

“What if I can’t?” she whispered, hating herself for voicing her fears when Graves was all alone.

He managed a crooked smile. “Then I’ll haunt the shit out of you, Goldstein.”

She laughed, loudly and awkwardly. “I’ll find you. I promise. Is there anything else you can think of?”

The smile fell off his face as he thought. Graves looked around the room he was in. “There’s no windows. Just a staircase and a door. Nobody visits. My food and water would just magically appear. Once a day, so I had to make it last. I’m almost too weak to make my magic work, Teen.” He spoke quietly and at times it was almost hard for Tina to hear him. But she didn’t miss her nickname.

She had a panicked thought. What if this wasn’t the real Graves? What if this was another trick? He had never called her Teen before. Only Queenie did.

Graves rolled back over and looked in the mirror. “Tina?” he asked, noticing the look on her face.

Tina tried to put a neutral look on her face. What was something she could ask him that he would know? Grindelwald had seemed to know a lot, but he was missing the core of what made Graves, well, Graves.  
“Do you remember when I was hired?” she asked.

Graves’ forehead creased as he thought. “When you entered the program or when you officially became an Auror?” he clarified.

“When I officially became an Auror.”

A small smile crossed his face. “I was still just Chief Auror. Gregory Roche was the Director. He knew he was on his way out, so he told me you were the one to watch. That if I worked with you and gave you the care you deserved, you could be an outstanding Auror one day.”

More tears fell down Tina’s cheeks. She had never heard this story before. Was it true? Roche had been an extremely kind man, but she hadn’t remembered him being too impressed by her. “I bet he regretted that after my first day,” she said with a chuckled.

Graves laughed hoarsely. “You managed to spill coffee on three different officials, including President Nigella.”

Tina blushed deeply, but laughed at the memory. It had been a horrible first day and she was certain she was going to get fired. The other Aurors made fun of her for it for a while, but after her first successful raid, they started to forget.

The laughter faded away and they were just left with one another. There had to be something that would help her find him.

“What about weather? Have you heard rain or anything?” she asked.

“No, nothing. There might be a silencing charm on the room. It’s too quiet,” he answered.

Tina sighed heavily.

Then the door was pushed open. Tina turned towards the door, holding the mirror behind her to protect it.

It was Carneirus. “Grindelwald talked to me, sort of!” he said excitedly.

“Shut the door and sit down!” Tina ordered him, looking sternly at the Head of Auror’s.

He nodded and did so. Once he was seated, Tina pulled the mirror back around to show him.

“Mr. Graves!” he said in surprise.

“Carneirus, of course it’s you. Only you would barge into a room unannounced,” Graves jokingly reprimanded him.

Carneirus blushed slightly. “Sir, I spoke with Grindelwald.”

“A fruitless endeavor, I imagine,” Graves managed in a hoarse voice.

“Maybe, but he did say the weeks as Director had been utterly boring for him,” he said.

“Graves said Grindelwald took him at Albany,” Tina told the man. “When did he go to Albany?”

The Auror thought for a moment. “November 14th, I believe.”

“Almost a month,” Tina whispered. How had nobody noticed? “What was happening in Albany?” Tina asked. “Who was he going after?”

“I don’t know,” Carneirus answered. “He didn’t tell us.”

They both looked down at the mirror. Graves was staring at them, waiting.

“Whispers about the Henderson family,” he told them.

Tina tried not to drop the mirror in surprise. The Henderson’s were an incredibly rich wizarding family. They had had a few members of the family that were President of MACUSA, but otherwise, they simply made their money in wizarding real estate. They weren’t known to have dark acquaintances.

“Oh,” Tina finally said. “Don’t they have a farmland upstate?” she asked.

“Yeah, why?” Carneirus asked.

“Graves mentioned the possibility of smelling farmland. If Graves went to one of the Henderson’s homes and found Grindelwald, who then took him, that’s an awfully big coincidence,” Tina said, looking at the man next to her.

“Or a trap,” Carneirus pointed out.

Tina looked back at the mirror. Graves was watching them with curious eyes. But there was also something there. Hope. Trust.

They would find him.

 _She_ would find him.


	4. Miracle

Tina, Evangeline, and Carneirus left for Albany immediately, not caring that the sun was already setting. Tina carried the mirror with her, but was not surprised to find the connection had been lost when they apparated to Albany. The Henderson’s farm was just a couple of miles north of Albany. So they headed there quickly, knowing their time may be running out.

With the mirror tucked away in her coat, Tina kept her wand out in front of her. The farmhouse was on a large patch of land far from the nearest road. Carneirus walked in front of the two women, his wand at the ready. The trio walked slowly over the gravel road leading down to the farmhouse. They had no idea of what to expect.

Maybe the farmhouse was empty. Maybe someone was still there.

Maybe they should have brought more Auror’s.

The long walk down the driveway took longer than Tina would have liked, but they couldn’t just apparate in. They didn’t know if there were any wards or traps up. Halfway down the driveway, Tina cast a small warming charm around herself. December was proving to be awfully cold in Albany.

Tina worried about Graves in this cold. During their conversation, she couldn’t tell if he had any blankets or even a coat. From what she could see, he was only wearing a short sleeved undershirt. She worried he was freezing.

She hurried her pace, coming up beside Carneirus. She wouldn’t leave Graves there for an extra second.

The trio pushed on, the now set and the dark growing around them. The land looked like no one had lived here for years. Tina knew the family still worked and lived here from time to time, so perhaps the dilapidated look was simply for effect. Or maybe their intel was wrong.

Pushing the thought out of her head, Tina kept scanning the expansive land around them, looking for any sign that someone was watching them. But as the group crept closer and closer to the house, there was nothing. No sign that anyone was there.

A dozen feet from the worse for wear farmhouse, the trio paused. The thought that they didn’t know what to expect was ever present in their minds. But they had trained for things like this. They were all seasoned Auror’s.

Once again, Carneirus took the lead, heading to the house and up the wooden stairs of the porch. Tina went next with Evangeline following close behind.

Besides the obvious sounds of the world around them, the house was silent. It didn’t seem like anyone was home.

Carneirus stopped at the door. “There’s a charm.”

Tina could feel it. It lived and breathed around them. Most charms were made to be unnoticeable, so that you could use them to hide or trick people. But some…some you could feel. Some were almost a part of their creator. Like Gellert Grindelwald was the one standing in the doorway, not allowing them to enter.

“Good thing I aced my charms class,” Evangeline quipped as she stepped around Tina and Carneirus. She worked quickly, but expertly, carefully, and deliberately. Watching her, Tina could tell that Evangeline had done this dozens of times, if not more.

Tina turned to watch the driveway behind them, always worried. She spent a lot of time being worried. It came with the job. Being an Auror was dangerous, especially in these times. Grindelwald might generally work in Europe, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have American followers. And that didn’t mean that they weren’t wreaking havoc around the country.

Tina worried a lot lately.

The end of the driveway seemed to be miles away. She narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on something far from them.

And it was getting closer.

She raised her wand.

“We need to get in that house, now!” Tina whispered hurriedly.

Carneirus stepped up next to her, watching a lone figure come closer. “What is it?” he asked.

And then the figure was changing? Growing taller?

And then the bone chilling howl ripped through the quiet night.

“Open the door, Evangeline!” Tina yelled, her heart thumping in her chest. Tina Goldstein had never seen a werewolf before. She had no interest in doing so now.

Tina couldn’t tell how far away the werewolf was. But he was too close.

“It’s open!” Evangeline finally shouted, pushing the wooden door open.

“Go!” Carneirus shouted. He shot off a spell, hitting the ground just feet from the still approaching werewolf.

Tina hurried into the house behind Evangeline and moved so Carneirus could follow. As soon as he was inside, Evangeline slammed the door shut and quickly began muttering an incantation. Before the door had shut, Tina had a good glimpse of their stalker. The sight of the werewolf was utterly terrifying.

No sooner had Evangeline finished putting up her protective charm than did the trio hear the unmistakable sound of someone hitting the protective ward. The werewolf was slammed onto the porch, his or her body bouncing hard off the decaying wood.

“We need to find Graves and quickly!” Carneirus ordered.

At once, the trio lit their wand tips and began looking around. The inside of the farmhouse looked slightly better than the outside, but not by much. Still, it was obvious someone had been living or meeting here.

Tina rushed through the living room, looking for any sign of a trap door. She went into the back room of the house, which turned out to be a dining room. Further back was the kitchen. No sign of any door or trap door, leaving to a basement. Her heart skipped a beat as another howl rang out in the night air. The good news, Tina decided, was that it appeared to be only one werewolf. The three of them could handle one werewolf.

 _Right_?

Tina went back into the dining room, looking it over once again. She had to be missing something. She met back up with the other two in the living room, both looking as dejected as she felt.

“We have to be missing something, right? He has to be here,” Tina said. She was dismayed to hear her own voice. She sounded like a whiny teenager.

The trio jumped as another howl went through the air. Tina walked over to the window at the back of the living room and looked out.

And then she saw it.

A storm door. Out in the middle of the backyard.

“Out there,” she whispered, holding the corner of the curtain aside.

Carneirus and Evangeline came up beside her. One of them sighed heavily.

“Well shit,” Carneirus muttered.

“Two of us will have to hold off the wolf while the third goes for it,” Evangeline said.

Tina let the curtain drop as the trio stood to stare at one another. None wanted to do either part of the plan.

“I’ve not even seen a werewolf before, let alone fought one,” Tina finally said.

“Me neither,” Evangeline said.

“I’ve sort of fought one. Should be easy enough, if there is only one. Just hit him with a stun and then a rope,” Carneirus said. “But if there’s more…or if there is a wizard waiting…,” he trailed off.

“We’ve got to try, Graves is depending on us to save his life,” Tina said, trying to force herself to stand a little taller. “He would do the same for us.”

Carneirus nodded solemnly. “Yes, he would.” He took a quick look between Tina and Evangeline. “Tina, you go for Graves. Evangeline and I will protect you, if nothing else.”

Tina looked at Evangeline, who only nodded once. “Get him and let’s get back to headquarters.”

Unspoken words passed through the group of silent encouragement. They had all put their lives on the line and for, seemingly, far less.

They walked into the dining room where the back door was and prepared themselves. The lights on wands went out. Evangeline muttered the incantation to bring down the ward around the house.

Once it was down, Carneirus ran out first, followed by Tina, and then Evangeline. With her protectors on either side, Tina ran as quickly as she could for the storm cellar. There was no guarantee that Graves was even in there, but she had to look.

“ _Stupefy_!” Carneirus suddenly shouted from slightly in front of her. The light shot out of his wand and flew past a twisting body.

“ _Stupefy_!” Evangeline followed quickly.

Tina turned her eyes from the fight and kept focused on the storm door. She was almost there. Her open coat flapped around her as she hurried through the night.

“Not so fast,” a high pitched voice said from in front of her.

Suddenly, someone was between her and the storm door. And Tina could not allow that.

Without thinking, she blocked the spell sent her way and silently threw an _Expelliarmus_ at the woman. She blocked it back and with a wicked smile, sent a familiar green curse at Tina.

With athletic skill that Tina hadn't known she was capable of, she threw herself out of the way of the unforgivable curse. Before she had hit the grass, Tina shouted “ _Glacius Duo_!”

She had only ever used the charm once before, on a plant, just to practice. As Tina hit the ground with a heavy thud, her head lightly bouncing off the dirt, she watched the stunned witch in front of her be encased in ice. Her hands were raised in surprise and her eyes wide, the witch was left frozen.

Tina paused for only a second and then pushed herself up from the ground. Aiming her wand at the storm door, she shouted “ _Bombarda_!” Bits of broken wood flew all around her. She shielded herself from the debris and then hurried down the steps.

And into the dark. “ _Lumos_.” The staircase lit up around her and her heart stopped.

It was the room. Tina swung her wand around, illuminating the room, as she paused at the bottom of the stairs.

Huddled in a corner, dirty, broken, and alone, was a body.

“Percival?” Tina called out.


	5. When it's Cold I'd Like to Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have posted two chapters at once, so be sure you read chapter 4 before this one!

I don’t remember what it feels like to be warm. I don’t remember what it feels like to not be in pain. Pain is my new normal.

He’s not even here anymore. They caught him. Put him in prison. For now.

He doesn’t hex me or curse me anymore.

But he’s always here. A voice in my head. The shadow in the corner of my room.

I’m home.

They saved me.

 _She_ saved me.

But it’s not enough.

If I close my eyes, I have nightmares. Even I keep them open, I have anxiety. Panic attacks. Fear.

I’m so tired. I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t want to dream.

_When it’s cold I’d like to die._

But she won’t let me. She’s always there, trying to make me warm. Trying to ease my pain.

When she smiles, sometimes, it doesn’t hurt. I don’t think of the pain. I don’t think of the anger. The fear.

But then she has to go back to work again and I’m alone again.

Lost in my fears. Lost in my sadness.

Like I’m drifting in the water, the tide taking me further out. Out. And Out. And Out.

I don’t want to swim forever. I want to stand. To walk. To live again.

But how do I get back there? How do I get rid of the nightmares? Of the fear?

I was a great Auror once. I was a Director of Magical Security. Head of Magical Law Enforcement. I was the President’s right hand man.

Now, even Seraphina Picquery looks at me with pity. I don’t need pity. I don’t want their pity.

_When it’s cold I’d like to die._

“Percival?” _her_ voice broke through the fog.

I looked over at her. _Tina Goldstein. She_ had saved _me_. Found _me_. Fought for _me_.

“What was that?” I asked, realizing she had asked me a question and wasn’t just saying my name.

“I asked if you wanted some sausage from that great Polish place down the way,” she asked me again.

I smiled softly. “That would be nice,” I told her.

The smile grew on her face. She looked tired, I could tell, but she would keep taking care of me for as long as I needed. I could tell. She was determined and when Tina Goldstein was determined, it was incredibly difficult to tear her from whatever it was. But I didn’t want her to stop.

It was nice for someone to care and not pity.

I watched her leave through my front door, already missing her. She could calm me like no others. It was easier when she was here.

I pulled my blanket up around my chest, settling into my chair and waiting for her to come back with good Polish sausage. And suddenly I realized…

I didn’t feel so cold anymore.


	6. The Table's Turning

The weeks since Graves had been rescued had gone by so quickly for Tina, however the emotional toll had set itself firmly on her shoulders, ever reminding her of the gravity of the situation. She was busy all of the time. She spent her days at work, catching up on new laws and new cases that she had missed while working in the Wand Department. Every day after work and for a time on the weekends, she would visit Graves in the hospital and later at his home when they finally let him leave.

Tina didn’t want to overstay her welcome with Graves, but she was also incredibly worried for him. He had been kidnapped and tortured for weeks. Tina didn’t know what he was going through, not really. She knew what had happened to him, from what little he had said and could guess at the rest. Still, on some level, she knew this was truly awful for him.

Little by little, Graves seemed to be getting better. She knew it wasn’t that easy. He could regress at any point. He may never completely recover from what was done to him.

Tina would do for him whatever she could while she could.

Almost two months had passed since Graves had been rescued. He was still at home recuperating, though he had spoken to Tina about the possibility of coming back to work.

She hoped he would. Limus was a great Auror, but everyone desperately missed Graves. He had something that most people lacked, though Tina wasn’t sure how to put it into words. He was effortless in his ability to command people with just a look.

Work was as busy as ever. Picquery had tightened security after the Grindelgraves situation, as some of the Aurors were calling it. She had also scheduled some of the top Aurors to take legilimency lessons, in an effort to be able to determine if someone was under polyjuice potion or transfiguration. Tina didn’t really think it would help, but she wasn’t one of the Aurors selected anyhow, so she wasn’t worrying about it. Having lived with Queenie for so long, she was used to someone being in her head from time to time.

After another long day at work and then a visit to Graves, Tina finally headed home to Queenie. The young blonde was not cooking dinner as usual when Tina walked through the front door. She was sitting at their dining room table, her hands flat on the wood in front of her. With her eyes closed, she could almost be mistaken for a statue.

“Queens?” Tina said slowly, heading into the room.

Queenie gulped visibly and opened her eyes, but still wouldn’t look at Tina.

“What happened?” Tina asked, taking off her coat and setting it on the back of the chair at the head of the table. Tina sank into the chair and took Queenie’s hand gently. “Queenie?”

“I _heard_ some of the guys at work, Teen,” Queenie said quietly.

“What’s going on?” Tina pressed. She had never seen Queenie like this.

Queenie finally turned to Tina and Tina could see the tears in her eyes. “They’re going to institute a marriage law!”

Tina’s brow furrowed. _A marriage law?_ Decades ago, when America was still long, MACUSA had developed a marriage law to help facilitate breeding, as they referred to it back then, of wizards. Once they deemed the wizarding population in America large enough, the law was repealed.

“What kind of marriage law?”

“The President and some of the department heads were worried about what happened to Graves. Picquery thinks if he had been married, someone might have noticed,” Queenie explained.

“We did notice! But how could we have known that somebody was pretending to be him?” Tina yelled, not at her sister but at the situation. They did notice, but it was too late. Too small for anyone to have done something.

“Teen, listen!” Queenie said, pulling on her sister’s arm to bring her attention back to her. “The law is for mostly MACUSA employees!”

Tina’s brow furrowed even more as she stared at her sister. “What?”

“Picquery wants to make sure that all of the heads of department and the next several employees in line are married,” she explained. “So this doesn’t happen again.”

“So, what? She’s going to make Graves get married?” Tina asked.

Queenie shrugged. “Seems so. But…Teen, we’re unmarried.” Queenie gestured between the two sisters.

Tina’s eyes went wide as she realized what her sister was suggesting. “Oh no, Picquery wouldn’t do that!” Her hands went to her face. “Would she?” Tina’s mind was running at a mile a minute. What if Picquery made Queenie marry someone? Or Tina?

Things had gone so well with Newt when she had seen him off to England. He had touched her face so tenderly and smiled like no one had ever smiled at her before. Tina could imagine a future with him. Once his book was out, maybe he could come back to America. Or she could go to England. She could always work at the Ministry of Magic, right?

But she and Newt couldn’t have a future if the Marriage Law matched her with one of the heads of a department. Graves was a fine man, but his deputy in Magical Law Enforcement was a 53-year-old with a gut so large he could easily fit an entire tray of food on it. When _standing_! For every Graves, there was someone who might not be someone Tina or Queenie could stomach for much time.

And poor Graves. Recently rescued and already Picquery was going to subject him to new torture. There were plenty of lovely women at MACUSA, but what did they know about taking care of him? He was still suffering and needed a gentle hand who could understand, on some level, what he was going through, not some bimbo more concerned with her appearance than with his mental health.

“I can’t marry anyone, Queens. Newt…,” Tina trailed off.

Queenie stood up from her chair and through her arms around her older sister, burying her face in her hair.

“We have to stick together. We promised,” Tina whispered.

“Of course we’ll stick together, but marriage laws are a binding contract. If we don’t follow through, who knows what could happen!” Queenie said, sitting back down. “They’re archaic, but legally binding. If Mr. Graves wasn’t so hurt, maybe he could convince the President this was a bad idea!”

Tina frowned. “He has so much on his plate, I worry to tell him. But he’ll find out eventually, won’t he?”

Queenie mirrored her sister’s face. “Likely, especially if Picquery intends for Mr. Graves to get married. I wonder how they’ll choose who gets paired with you.”

The thought was worrisome. Would it be based on physical aspects? Personality? She shuddered to think.

“Maybe we’ll miss it,” Queenie suggested, though Tina could tell by her lackluster tone that she didn’t believe it. There were plenty of single women at MACUSA, but Queenie was known for her beauty. If they were to base the marriage law on physical aspects, Queenie would be at the top of the list as a potential wife.

“Maybe the law will let the people choose,” Tina said, not believing it.

A sad silence fell over the sisters. Tina had dreamt of her wedding, but not like this.

“Maybe they won’t pass the law,” Queenie said.

_Maybe. Maybe. Maybe._


	7. Inside Four Walls

Both Queenie and Tina wanted to skip work the next day. Thankfully, it was a Friday so they just had to make it through the day and then they could panic all weekend. Well, first, Tina would have to visit Mr. Graves and possibly tell him the news.

He deserved to know. Tina _knew_ he deserved to know.

_She_ just didn’t want to be the one to tell him.

She really didn’t want to talk to her boss about a marriage law _at all_.

Despite her concern over his wellbeing, that didn’t mean they were friends. Tina wasn’t sure what she’d call them, besides coworkers, but he was still, at the end of the day, her boss. It was one thing to check on him and make sure he was doing well and another thing to discuss something as personal such as marriage.

Luckily, and unfortunately, there weren’t even whispers of the marriage law in the entire MACUSA office on Friday. It was nice, in some way, to know that the rumor hadn’t reached the biggest gossipers in the office, but it was also worrying that this law may truly hit everyone unaware. But Tina wasn’t one for gossip and she had no idea how to even plant the idea that there might be a marriage law for MACUSA employees in the works.

And what if it never even came about?

It was, after all, just a plan right now.

She hoped.

Tina was antsy all day. She found it so hard to concentrate, especially when she realized both Limus and Carneirus were single too. In fact, most of the Aurors were unmarried. Tina could only think of maybe eight out of the 37 that were married. Six were divorced and two were widowed, having married Aurors that were sadly killed on duty.

She watched Limus and Carneirus throughout the day, wondering if the law might make her marry one of them. At least being an Auror she would understand what they faced each day. Someone from Wand Permit or Magical Law wouldn’t ever be able to fully understand what an Auror goes through.

Limus was older than Graves by a few years. He had a head full of grey hair, with just a touch of his natural black near the back of his neck. He wore thick brown glasses that made him look out of place among the Aurors, but he was one of the best. Limus and Graves had worked together since the beginning, but Limus had been slower to take to command than Graves and so Graves rose faster. Limus, Tina figured, wouldn’t be a terrible husband. He could be a bit awkward at times, but overall he was a kind man.

Carneirus was in his 30s and was what Queenie referred to as “stereotypically handsome”. He kept his blonde hair closely cropped and always gelled down. Most of the women at MACUSA found his deep blue eyes to be dreamy. Tina did find him attractive, but she tried desperately to not think of her coworkers in that fashion. But now…He was a good guy, but Tina wasn’t so sure he was thoughtful enough to make a good husband.

For a moment, as the end of the day neared, Tina considered warning Limus and Carneirus about the marriage law. But uncertainty kept her from doing so. It wasn’t that Tina didn’t trust what Queenie had heard, but it was the fact that they didn’t know for sure that the law would be implemented. Was it better to be warned about something that may never come to be or never know until it was too late?

Tina decided she would tell Limus and Carneirus if Queenie heard anything more today. If not, she’d wait and see.

But she would have to talk to Graves about it. He was in a worse place than the rest of him, no sense in such a law being sprung on him.

He deserved transparency more than anyone.

Although he could live at Graves Manor in upstate New York, the Director preferred a much smaller, though still quite spacious, house a few miles from MACUSA headquarters in the Bronx. Protected by many wards and charms, his two-story home sat on two acres of land and appeared to no-majs as a worn down and boarded up house. Tina loved his house because it had a wraparound porch that she saw all the time in the South.

Tina apparated to an alleyway in a small area of town just a few blocks from his house and walked the rest of the way, enjoying the more open feel of the Bronx. She loved living in New York City, but it could feel so crowded sometimes. She was growing to love how open, but alive, this area felt.

Passing through the wards on the house, Tina walked across the yard, up the stairs, and knocked on the front door.

A moment passed before the door swung open and a house elf named Lily welcomed Tina inside.

“Good evening Miss Goldstein,” Lily greeted her, shutting the door behind her once Tina had stepped into the foyer.

“Good evening Lily. How is Mr. Graves today?” Tina asked in a quiet voice.

Lily smiled. “Very good,” she said, leading Tina to the office on the side of the house.

Tina smiled, but she also hated to ruin a good day. Lily pushed the wood door open and Tina was unsurprised to see Graves sitting at his desk, going through a stack of papers. Graves looked up from his papers and smiled at seeing Tina.

“Good evening, Tina,” he said, immediately turning back to his papers.

Lily gave Tina one more smile as she left, shutting the door behind her. Tina crossed the large office, which was covered in full and crowded bookshelves, and sat in the leather seat in front of Graves’ desk.

“Good evening, Mr. Graves. How are you doing today?” she asked.

“Better, thank you,” he answered curtly.

Tina had long gotten used to it. He was grateful for her support, but clearly not happy he needed it. She was used to his curtness by now, so it didn’t bother her. She did notice that he was wearing a button-up shirt, though not the expensive and slightly sheer one that he often wore to work. He still didn’t have his waistcoat or suit jacket or tie, but at least he was looking better than his normal plain white undershirt that he had taken to wearing since his release from the hospital.

“Did somebody bring you work to do?” Tina asked, watching him thumb through some papers.

“Seraphina stopped by this afternoon and was kind enough to bring me a few cases to look through while I recover,” he answered.

Tina bit her bottom lip nervously.

“I can hear your apprehension, Goldstein,” he remarked curtly.

She released her lip and frowned. “Is she going to let you come back?” Tina asked.

Graves finally stopped looking at his papers and looked up at her. His jaw was set firmly, but Tina could see the lack of confidence in his stare. “Congress is…concerned.”

“They don’t trust you.”

She saw his jaw twitch slightly.

“But you’re you,” she said.

“I know that,” he answered sharply. “I understand the apprehension of those at MACUSA, however…,” he trailed off.

“Grindelwald is in custody and you’re here. And it’s not like you helped him! You were tortured!” Tina said, getting upset.

Graves smiled slightly. “You don’t have to convince me, Tina,” he joked.

“I’m sorry, sir. I just…it’s all so unfair,” she whined, not only talking about Graves being kidnapped.

“Life, you may have noticed, is rarely fair, even to the just.”

Tina slid down in the chair. She knew all about how unfair life could be. Her parents had died of dragon pox when she and Queenie were young.

“Is something on your mind, Tina?” he asked, setting his hands on the desk and linking his fingers in front of him.

“Plenty is on my mind, Sir,” she mumbled.

“Tina, please. I may not be acting Director at the moment, but if something is going on at work, you can speak to me about it.”

She let out a deep breath, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks.

_Just say it,_ she told herself. _Tell him the rumors and leave it at that._

“There’s a rumor at work,” she finally said in a quiet voice.

“Don’t speak into your chest, Tina,” he admonished her slightly.

Taking a deep breath, Tina pushed herself up in the chair and spit it out. “There’s a rumor at work that the President will be instituting a marriage law.”

Tina watched her boss carefully as he processed the information. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly and his jaw tightened again.

“What _kind_ of marriage law?” he asked in a low voice.

She gulped nervously. “Mostly for MACUSA employees. Apparently the President is worried that the reason no one noticed, which isn’t entirely true, is because you weren’t married. And if you had been married…,” she trailed off.

“My dutiful wife would have known I wasn’t me and stopped this all immediately,” Graves said angrily.

“The President wants the heads of every department and next few in line behind them to be married.”

The room fell silent as Graves angrily worked through the scenario. Tina could feel the anger radiating off of her boss. She knew he wouldn’t be happy about it, but she wasn’t quite expecting so much anger. Mostly, she wasn’t expecting to _feel_ it so much.

“But maybe they won’t institute the law,” Tina said in a quiet voice.

“Thank you, Tina, for letting me know. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind the next time I speak with the President,” Graves said in a terse voice. He looked back down at the papers on his desk, fuming about the law.  
Tina fought back a groan. If the President found out that Tina was the one spreading this rumor, she might get in a lot of trouble.

“Sir,” Tina started.

Graves held up his hand. “I will not tell the President you were the one to tell me.”

She frowned deeply. “I’m the only one you talk to, Sir,” she reminded him in a quiet voice.

Looking up from his papers suddenly, Graves eyes went wide and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Touché, Tina. I’ll find some way to broach the subject with the President that won’t get you in trouble. I promise.”

She nodded, though she wasn’t sure how he could do that. They sat in silence for a moment with Graves watching her closely now.

“You’re worried and not about me,” Graves said.

“Queenie and I are single,” she said.

Graves nodded. “Any one of the men at MACUSA would be lucky to have either of you, though most of them would be completely undeserving.”

His compliment startled Tina. She hadn’t been expecting it and hearing it come out of her boss so casually was a weird feeling for Tina.

“Queenie, perhaps,” Tina said.

Graves shook his head. “Don’t sell yourself short, Tina.” He pushed himself up from his chair slowly, using the desk to hold his weight. Tina followed suit, standing up from her chair. “Go home to your sister, Tina. Relax. Don’t worry about this law. If the President does intend to implement it, I will do whatever I can to ensure you and your sister are protected.”

“We don’t need preferential treatment,” Tina said sharply. She instantly regretted her tone and blushed.

He nodded. “No, but you also don’t deserve to be stuck with some middle aged fool you can't stand for the rest of your life. You and Queenie both deserve to make your own choice.” Graves tilted his head as he looked at her yet again. “Go home, Tina. Enjoy your weekend.”

“I can come by tomor-,” she started to say, but Graves started shaking his head, stopping her.

“I am fine. You don’t have to visit every single day. I promise if something happens, Lily will let you know.”

Tina frowned, but nodded. “Of course, Sir. Have a good weekend.”

Leaving him in his office, Tina headed out of his house, bidding Lily goodbye as she passed the house elf. She didn’t like the idea of not stopping in over the weekend, but he was right. It had been two months since she found him, she didn’t have to continue to visit every day.

But she was still worried about the marriage law. Maybe it would amount to nothing, but Tina couldn’t help but wonder:

_What if?_


	8. Veritas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally updated! Overtime at work is now over, so hopefully chapter 9 will come easier (as well as my other story). Thanks for sticking around!

Monday morning came and to Tina’s relief, there were still no rumors about the alleged marriage law.

But there couldn’t possibly be room for rumors about a marriage law when Percival Graves had returned to work.

The entire headquarters of MACUSA seemed to be on fire with news of the Director’s return to his office. Especially since he wasn’t scheduled to return anytime soon. He wasn’t even scheduled to return.

President Picquery was furious and was, as Tina headed for her desk, in Graves’ office arguing with him. According to the Aurors that had arrived to work before Tina, they were able to hear the pair fighting until someone cast a silencing spell.

Tina sat at her desk, slightly unhappy to hear Graves was back at work already. And she felt guilty. If she hadn’t told him about the marriage law, he might not have returned so soon.

What if he couldn’t handle being back so quickly?

What if people were awful to him?

He didn’t deserve that.

“Can you believe he’s back already, Tina?” Evangeline Potter said, coming up to Tina’s desk. She looked tired, as if she had been working on all night. Tina wasn’t surprised.

Tina shook her head. “It’s too soon, right?” she whispered, looking up at the Auror.

Evangeline shrugged. “Hell if I know. Graves isn’t exactly human. He’s never really reacted to things like the rest of us.”

Tina frowned. “Do you think things will ever be the normal again?”

Evangeline smiled. “Eventually.” She gave Tina’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze and then headed off to her own desk, leaving Tina with her worries.

Graves _would_ be fine, right?

Unable to do anything about the situation, Tina had no choice but to get to her work. Even though she had been reinstated as an Auror over two months prior, Tina was still getting used to being back. She kept expecting to get demoted again. Limus, who was in charge while Graves was gone, had paired Tina with Carl Hammond.

At almost 40, Carl was a Senior Auror with 17 years of experience. He was also incredibly cynical and dry. He hated jokes and simply wanted to do his job and go home at the end of the day.

Tina didn’t mind working with him, but she did miss her old partner, Lola Phelps. Lola was everything Tina wanted to be and more. Graceful, chic, and brilliant, Lola seemed to flit through life as if it were a breeze. Tina used to watch Lola like a hawk, wishing she could copy her every move. Lola was so easy to talk to and wasn’t intimidating at all, until she pulled out her wand.

Lola had transferred to the Los Angeles office about a month before the Grindelwald trouble. Tina missed her and missed the grace and calm Lola brought to the job.

Carl just couldn’t compare.

With the marriage law in the back of her mind, Tina turned to her research. She and Carl were following up on no-maj killer Joseph Curtis. He had been seen in New York during the past week.

Tina wished she was working with Carneirus and Evangeline instead. The pair was officially/publically investigating Eddie Lang and Georgia Wilson, a pair of Grindelwald followers that were killing and torturing no-majs’ across the east coast. Unofficially and only known to Limus and Tina, the pair was investigating how Grindelwald got to Graves and why they didn’t notice. Picquery had given them the case, trusting no one else.

Tina wondered if they had found anything out. She knew they had questioned Graves, but he hadn’t known much. She figured they must have something if Evangeline was working through the night.

The morning moved quickly as Tina worked on her research. From time to time, she and Carl would meet up and discuss a development, but they were having trouble tracking Curtis down. The reports put him at almost every corner of the city. Tina knew the next step was to go out in the field and track him down.

After lunch, which Tina spent in the office munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as she went through a report, Evangeline rushed to Tina’s desk.

“Teen!” she huffed, her breathing heavy. She had clearly run from some part of the building. “You’ll never guess what’s going on!”

Tina’s heart dropped. Was this it?

“What?” she asked, fearing the worst.

Evangeline knelt down next to Tina’s desk. She had a wild look on her face that Tina couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t quite fearful, but there was concern in her soft green eyes. The woman quickly looked around and then leaned in closer to Tina.

“There’s a marriage law,” she whispered.

A beat of silence as everything around Tina disappeared.

Tina tried to look surprised and it wasn’t hard. She had been hoping and praying that the law wouldn’t happen, that it was some sort of bad joke.

But it was _real_.

“A marriage law? I thought those were thrown out,” Tina said quietly.

The other woman shrugged. “Guess the President has other ideas. No word on who it affects though,” she said. Her brow furrowed as she thought, probably considering the multitude of possibilities.

“Why though? Why now?”

“Nobody seems to know, but Joe MacMillian in Education was saying it might be because of Graves. Though how a marriage law fits into that, I don’t know, Teen.”

“How long do we have?”

Evangeline shrugged again. “Again, still no word. Could be as early as next week. All depends on Congress passing it.”

“Will they, Evangeline? Would they do that to us?”

The Auror was quiet, contemplating the situation facing MACUSA. Tina could feel her heart pumping in her chest as she waited for Evangeline to answer.

“I think they will, Tina. Everyone is terrified after this Grindelgraves mess. The President is worried about it happening again. We’re lucky that Grindelwald didn’t do anything worse than what he did. He could have killed the President or the entirety of MACUSA.” Evangeline sighed heavily. “But I’m worried we’re going too far one way. The legilimency and occulmency lessons are one thing, but a marriage law? I don’t want to be forced to marry someone. I want a choice.”

Tina nodded. “I’m worried about what will happen to Queenie. She doesn’t deserve this.”

The two women grew quiet. Tina felt like crying. She felt powerless in this situation. She hated being powerless. She became an Auror partly so she wouldn’t have to feel like that anymore.

“Do you think Graves know?” Evangeline asked.

Tina stayed quiet. Could she lie to Evangeline? Hadn’t she already? What was another lie?

“It’s an awful big coincidence, isn’t it?” Tina said. “Graves comes back the day we start to hear about this marriage law.”

Evangeline stood up next to Tina, her brow furrowed as she considered the new possibility. “That’s why he came back so soon,” she whispered. Evangeline looked down at Tina. “That’s what he and Picquery were arguing about.”

The pieces fell into place for the older woman and Tina felt guilty. Tina frowned.

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Tina whispered, her voice growing even quieter.

“We’re Aurors, Teen,” Evangeline remarked as she began to move away, her face stoic. “We’re always in trouble.”


	9. Pressure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long, long wait! I admit to losing my inspiration for this story, but I promise I won't give up yet! Hopefully I'll at least give you a new chapter each month, though ideally I'd like at least two chapters a month. But I am working on this, my other FB fic, trying to do my Scorpion fic, and trying to write my new book, having finally finished my other book. But it's my summer break from work so hopefully I'll be able to get lots of writing done. Thank you all for sticking around!

The rumor spread quickly and by the end of the day MACUSA was on proverbial fire. No one had seen or spoken to Graves since he arrived besides the President and the President was now in hiding from her employees as well.

Tina was struggling to keep it together.

Rumors about who the law would effect and what the law entailed were circling and most of them sounded horrifying to Tina.

The big one that everyone kept coming back to was The Consummation Act. In order for the Marriage Law to be considered complete, the husband and wife would have to consummate the marriage.

 _Sex_.

Tina and Queenie were both virgins. Sure, they’ve fooled around with guys before, but not the full thing.

Tina was saving herself for someone she loved. Someone who would be kind and gentle.

What if she was forced to marry someone cruel and angry? What if Queenie was forced to marry someone like that?

Tina couldn’t stand the thought.

Sleep didn’t come easy to Tina that night. She tossed and turned and every time she closed her eyes, she dreamt about which horrible MACUSA employee she would be forced to marry.

Most of the people that worked for MACUSA were nice. They did their job and they treated people well. But there were horrible people everywhere. Tina worried, with her luck, that she would end up being forced to marry one of the awful people at MACUSA.

If the end of Monday at work had been chaotic, then Tina didn’t know what to call Tuesday. Dozens of people called in sick from every department and those who did show up were furious, calling for a boycott of the President and Congress.

Trying to keep her head down, Tina stayed at her desk and went through the files of her current case. There were still reports coming in that put no-maj killer Joseph Curtis all over the city. They couldn’t definitively pinpoint where he was and that was frustrating for Tina.

She needed to find him. She needed to get another solved case under her belt to help keep her job.

Carneirus found her at her desk, surrounded by every report that had come in in the past week, her hair frazzled and her eyes focused on nothing.

“You must be the only single person in the building not panicking about the marriage law,” he joked as he pulled up a seat next to her desk.

Tina pulled out of her daze and looked over at the man. She took a second to process what he had said and then shrugged. “Panicking isn’t going to change anything.” She looked back at the paper in front of her. “Besides, I spent most of the night thinking about it,” she added.

Carneirus chuckled lightly. “Don’t worry, Tina. I bet the system they choose to use will match you with the most wonderful man.”

She could hear the joke in his tone, but wasn’t sure if he was mocking her or the law. “As long as he won’t argue about me continuing to be an Auror,” she joked back, though her tone fell a bit flat. She wasn’t good at jokes.

“Who do you think they’ll pair Graves with?” he asked in a quieter voice.

Tina looked over at him, her forehead wrinkled in contemplation. “Someone beautiful, I’m sure.”

She hadn’t meant to sound so sad and jaded when she said it, but yet there it was. The only person who looked at her as if she was beautiful was Newt. And now she might have lost her chance with the only man who cared about her.

Tina sighed, her face falling. “I’m sure Mr. Graves will fight it to the end.” She turned back to her work, trying to concentrate.

Carneirus didn’t say anything. Tina knew her boss was married, so he didn’t have to worry about this stupid law. Limus was also married, but Evangeline was not.

“Maybe they’ll match you with Graves,” Carneirus said in a serious tone.

Tina looked at him, mortified at the thought of marrying her boss. Her face went red. “Don’t be absurd!”

He laughed at her obvious discomfort and stood up from his chair. “Don’t worry, Tina. They’ll find you some utterly boring to be paired with. Or maybe you’ll get lucky and won’t get paired with anyone.” He pushed his chair back where it came from. “But no matter who you marry, you’ll still need to have your report to me by the end of the week. Tell Carl it’s time you guys went traveling.”

Groaning, Tina grimaced. She didn’t usually mind being out on the street, but with the marriage law, she wanted to be in the office when concrete news came out.

“Understood,” she told him before he walked off, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

With a heavy sigh, Tina pushed herself up from her desk and headed out of the office. Carl, unbothered by the marriage law, was down the hallway in an empty conference room. He liked his space when he was working on a troublesome case. Curtis wasn’t the most difficult killer they had tracked, but he was proving to be hard to find.

She knocked on the open door to get Carl’s attention. The older Auror was standing in front of a cork board full of photos and papers. He looked over at the door and smiled lightly at Tina.

“What is it, Goldstein?” he asked.

Tina frowned. “I’m afraid Carneirus has given us the order to get out.”

Carl frowned, matching her face. “We knew it was coming. Nothing like getting out on foot to track down a suspect.”

“Hard to track down someone that’s been spotted in every inch of the city,” she said as she walked into the small room. Her eyes wandered over the board he had set up. The photos of the crime scene were not gruesome, but they still managed to churn Tina’s stomach. “He allegedly has no friends in the city. So how do we find him?”

“Some of the reports have more merit than others. We start there,” he answered her, pointing at a couple of copies of reports he had pinned to the board.

Tina read over them. Curtis had been allegedly seen at The Blind Pig a couple of nights in a row. During the day, he had been seen at a wizarding clothing store a street over.

That area was a good a start as any.

“Well, let’s not waste the daylight. I’d like to be home for dinner,” her partner said.

Tina sighed again.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using charms to alter their appearances enough that people wouldn’t automatically recognize them, Carl and Tina wandered around a small area of New York City, looking for any sign that would lead them to Joseph Curtis. They had been walking and stopping in wizarding shops for almost two hours and the afternoon was getting close to beginning to fade into evening.

Carl was gruff and unhappy. Tina was simply still worried about the marriage law. She assumed nothing would happen today, but one never knew.

The Blind Pig wouldn’t have many patrons, if any, at this hour and so would likely be useless to them at this point in time. The last stop for the pair of Aurors was a nearby wizard hotel, The Claxton Motel. It was small and didn’t get many visitors, not when the far more luxurious Maggie Pyle Hotel was a few streets over. Named after a great New York witch, the hotel was the favorite of visiting witches and wizards, even those on a budget. The Claxton was for those who didn’t care and wanted a place to hide out.

Snooping around would be difficult.

But luckily, Carl and Tina were Aurors.

They split up, with Carl taking the first floor of the seedy motel, while Tina headed to the second floor. She’d have knocked on every door if she wasn’t afraid of what she might find. Besides, she had no cause to knock on every door. This wasn’t an apartment building with the names of the residents on file. This was a motel where people went to hide.

She slowly walked the long hallway, her ears listening for any sound that might lead her to Curtis. The 6’5” brute was known to have an awfully high voice for his height and build. If he was here and spoke, she should be able to find him.

Although the motel looked fairly small from the outside, it actually had quite a long hallway. A change in ownership a few years back had changed the clientele the motel got and now fewer people stopped by, making most of the rooms unneeded.

Still, Tina walked the full length of the hallway, listening closely at each door. Most of the rooms sounded completely empty. A few had noises on the inside, but nothing that gave Tina any indication that it might be Curtis.

Turning at the end of the hall, Tina went back down the hallway for one last listen.

She didn’t have to go far before a door creaked open and Curtis stepped out into the hallway. It took Tina a moment before she realized it was him.

Curtis closed the door behind him and took a step before he realized there was someone else in the hallway. Their eyes connected and for a moment, it looked like Curtis was just going to go about his day. But something made him pause.

It was probably the fact that Tina was pulling out her wand, albeit slowly.

Curtis opted to run, pulling out his own wand as he did so, heading for the staircase at the far end of the hallway, far away from the Auror chasing him.

Tina let off several spells as she took chase after him, but each one missed their mark. She still hadn’t mastered the art of casting spells as she ran. She made a mental note to work on that.

Focusing on her running, Tina sped up after him, though cautious of what he might do. Curtis had already shown he had no problem with killing, even if it was “just” a no-maj. To get away, there was no telling just what he might do.

He hit the stairs quickly, leaving Tina far behind. By the time she reached the stairs, he was gone. Tina cursed at herself for not being more casual when she saw him. She could have already caught him by now. She knew she had been out of the game for far too long.

Graves would have her ass for this mistake.

She hit the bottom of the stairs running and rushed out into the hallway to find Carl and Curtis engaged in a duel. Tina rushed to her left behind a wall as Curtis sent a spell her way, which hit a wall behind her, leaving a nasty mark. As she listened to the tell tale sounds of spells being blasted around the room, Tina wished she had a mirror so she could see what was happening. She worried about getting hit if she stuck her head out for a glimpse.

Tina waited until she heard the sounds of more spells going off and then she whipped around the corner and shot off a spell towards where she had last seen Curtis. In the best spot of luck that Tina had had in quite a while, Curtis had yet to move.

The spell hit him in his left shoulder and knocked him over. She immediately called for his wand, watching it come out of his loose grip.

“Safe!” Tina called out.

Carl came out from his hiding place across the room and rushed over to where Tina was standing over Curtis’ writhing body.

“My arm! You bitch!” he called out, cussing at Tina.

She smirked, unable to stop herself from feeling like she had just saved her job.


End file.
